The perennial favourite Pac-Man is back, on the Gamecube and in 3D. Pac-Man World 2 takes everyone’s favourite yellow arcade character out of the maze and into his very own 3D world, battling a host of enemies along the way.
This time around, the ghosts have snuck into the village of the Pac-People and stolen the golden fruit that, according to legend, keeps the Pac-People happy. The ghosts have unwittingly released Spooky, who then commands the ghosts to hide the golden fruit throughout Pac-Land.
You begin your adventure in Pac-Village, where you will venture out into the Pac-World. The village has a number of characters that can help Pac-Man out throughout the game. The Golden Fruit Tree lies in the centre of the village, while the arcade has Pac-Man games that you can immerse yourself in if you need a break from the ‘real’ Pac-Man world. To activate the games in the arcade, you will need tokens. These can be found around the different worlds.
The forest is the first stop for Pac-Man; the rest of the world spans treetop levels, Snow Mountain, Lava, Ghost Island and the Ocean level.
Pac-Man still retains some of the old features; the Pac-Dots are still present, for example, as are the ghosts (already mentioned above). Collect the PacDots to gain health wedges and score points. The Pac-Dot chain is a particularly fun feature; starting with a large red Pac-Dot, the chains automatically lead Pac-Man to previously inaccessible areas as he eats his way through the Pac-Dots. Chests and crates conceal other items, such as fruit, power-ups or Pac-Man’s enemies.
Alongside the usual ghosts, Pac-Man has a few more hazards to beat. Buzz saws, insects and unfriendly animals all wait for Pac-Man once he leaves the safety of the village. Eels lurk in coral reefs, bats patrol the skies at night and the Neander-Pac brings Pac-Man back down the evolutionary chain. Defeat the bosses at the end of each level to grab a piece of golden fruit.
To overcome some of the obstacles, Pac-Man has a whole new range of moves. He can run, jump, tiptoe, shuffle along ledges, and use his flip kick to defeat enemies and open boxes. Pac-Man can get a bit of extra height by using his ‘Butt-bounce’ move, while the ‘Rev Roll’ is a super-fast way of crossing canyons and crevices that Pac-Man would find difficult to bridge otherwise. The new, improved Pac-Man can also swim, opening up a whole new world for him (and pretty handy, considering the inclusion of the Ocean level!).
These new moves can take a few seconds to get the hang of them, but before you know it, you’re bouncing, rolling and swimming like a pro. Controls are easy to master and intuitive.
Power-ups available include the Steel Ball power-up, which allows Pac-Man to walk around underwater, bursting open crates and chests with a Butt-Bounce or Rev Roll. Of course you’ll have to wait until it wears off to get out of deep water, but since you’re practically invulnerable anyway, a few more seconds submerged won’t do you any harm.
As with the original Pac-Man arcade game, grabbing a Power Pellet will have the ghosts scurrying to get away from you. The Shrink power-up will allow Pac-Man to get into those hard-to-reach places, but be warned — it also leaves you open to being squashed like a bug!
Some of the levels can get pretty frustrating, especially the treetop levels that require Pac-Man to bounce around on targets (called B-Doings). You need to hit them just at the right spot or you’ll plummet past your intended target to the ground below — and while there is a safety net at the beginning of the level, that is quickly dispensed with. The result is endlessly replaying levels, re-starting at checkpoints until your lives run out. This can get a bit tedious; the only alternative is to collect as many extra lives as possible to save you from replay hell.
If you fancy even more of a challenge, a time trial mode allows you to pit Pac-Man against the clock to earn bonus tokens. Pac-Village and the Boss Levels are the only ones without a time trial mode. Pac-man cannot lose any lives during the Time Trial mode; instead he automatically returns to the beginning of the level.
Of course, the traditional Pac-Man mazes haven’t been completely banished from the game — they’ve just taken a backseat. Throughout the levels, there are Galaxians to be found; these will transport Pac-Man into the mazes. You have three attempts to finish the level; any fruit or Pac-Dots you collect will count towards your score but not your 100% completion target.
The inclusion of the time trial level adds a bit more replay value to the game; team this with the fact that you will rarely collect all the fruit and Pac-Dots around the level to complete it 100 percent and you have a game that you could replay time and again. However, some of the levels are so frustrating that you simply might not want to bother. Personally, I could live without ever seeing the treetop level again. Ever.
This re-worked version of an old classic is great fun and definitely worth a second look — just beware of the frustration factor.
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